Today's Opinions

Despite comments published in recent weeks in The Sentinel-News, Shelby County Public Schools wants the public to know it does not enter into construction contracts without close scrutiny of reputations and references. It does not accept work that is not up to expectations. It does not absorb the financial burden if a problem comes up. It does not put students and staff in an unsafe environment.

We are sad to see so many good names and reputations be dragged through the legal sludge that we fear will happen in the lawsuit by Billie Wade against his former employers, Citizens Union Bank, the holding company that owns it and several specific individuals.

Mr. Wade departed the bank about 15 months ago after an announcement of federal and state inquiries into the bank’s lending practices, and officials said at the time he was retiring. Mr. Wade did not comment other than in a released statement.

We would be remiss if we let any more time pass and didn’t say a proper congratulations to Bobby Cravens, the firefighter from Simpsonville who in a set of incredible coincidences was available and able to save the life of his parents’ neighbors on the July 4th weekend.

In case you missed the story, Andre Evans was having a heart attack, and his wife, Teresa, was rushing him from their home on Hunter’s Lane to get medical help when she noticed a Simpsonville Fire Department vehicle parked at a house along the way.

I hear Jim Wiley has been around baseball since he helped Abner Doubleday lay out the field for a game among Gen. Sherman’s troops.

That may not be true, but for certain he was playing fastpitch softball with the Shelby County Jets more than a couple of decades ago. I know, because my Granddaddy used to take me to see the Jets play.

We are sad to see so many good names and reputations be dragged through the legal sludge that we fear will happen in the lawsuit by Billie Wade against his former employers, Citizens Union Bank, the holding company that owns it and several specific individuals.

Mr. Wade departed the bank about 15 months ago after an announcement of federal and state inquiries into the bank’s lending practices, and officials said at the time he was retiring. Mr. Wade did not comment other than in a released statement.

We would be remiss if we let any more time pass and didn’t say a proper congratulations to Bobby Cravens, the firefighter from Simpsonville who in a set of incredible coincidences was available and able to save the life of his parents’ neighbors on the July 4th weekend.

In case you missed the story, Andre Evans was having a heart attack, and his wife, Teresa, was rushing him from their home on Hunter’s Lane to get medical help when she noticed a Simpsonville Fire Department vehicle parked at a house along the way.

In 1950, when George Orwell penned his classic book Nineteen Eighty-Four, he envisioned a future where government officials communicated only through deliberately ambiguous or evasive language. Webster’s defines Orwell’s supposedly fictional future language, called “Newspeak,” as “propagandistic language marked by euphemism, circumlocution and the inversion of customary meanings.”

I am afraid that Orwell was only a few years off with his timeline and that his scenario has arrived in 2011 America.

$360,682: What can that do for the world? Before school ended in Shelbyville, it was found in the budgets of math, science, history, English and other educational programs to better our students’ lives. Tragically, now, it can pay to temporarily fix a terminally ill football field.